Week at a glance...

Sadie getting ready to plant the garden in while wearing her sundress and rubber boots. (It was cold and windy.) 

We invited Grampsie over this week to teach the kids how to make poplar whistles. They were a HUGE hit. 

Wesley Cleaned his room by using his hockey stick to shoot his clothes in the general direction of his dresser.  Then he gave up and just stacked it all on top announcing:  "NOW do you think Ellie will sleep with me?"

Sadie recieved a package from her great aunt containing this stunning ensemble.  She was greatly pleased.

Science was accomplished.

Whistles were blown.

Teeth were lost.

Edible "cells" were made.

Dress-up like big sister.

More whistle making in the garage.

Siblings

They pair off to hunt, play cards, sleep together, ride horse, play music, listen to stories on cd's, wrestle, do crafts, work their chores...so thankful that they have each other. So thankful that they are mine.

Text- Talk

As we were going out the door to go to church tonight, Wes unloads his tiny pockets at the doorway.
Wes: "I Has MONEY!"  (pennies, dimes and nickles roll on the wood floor)
me: "Where did you get that money Wes?  Did you take it from dad's drawer??"
Darren: "He's been stealing from everyone's room lately...B.T.W. mom."
I look up at Darren.
me: "Um... don't say that."
Darren:  "What?!   BTW...By... The ... Way...?"
me:  "I know...  It's just weird to talk like you are texting."
Darren:  (laughing in his deep deep teen voice)
Sadie:  "He stole that money from Ellie's room!  I saw him do it!" 
me:  "Let me guess F..Y..I?"
Sadie:  NO!!!  silly!  It's E.. L.. L.. I.. E!!"

Sorrows divided on a Tuesday

Sadie had a hard night. I cuddled her into a morphine sleep and she woke up in pain at 3 am needing more. The nurse came and gave her what she needed and i cuddled back in with her until she nodded off again at 4... and then couldn't get back to sleep myself. I turned on my phone and sent a message to an old friend i recently re-discovered. Lisa wrote me back 7 minutes later...she has been down the cancer/chemo road many times and is in the middle of another fight. There is nothing like sharing pain with someone who has been where you are...and has travelled down the road where you are headed... who is up at 4 am because they are hurting too.

After a long day of pet/cat scans, hormone stimulation tests and meeting more specialists and nurses than I've ever met in my life, Dr. B decided that it would make sense to send us home for the night. Sadie's chemo wasn't going to be ready until 9pm tonight and then we would have to stay the night again and they needed our room for another family from Calgary. I was thrilled to go home... one more day to let the reality of the coming chemo sink in. One day with all of us back together under the same roof before this sharp turn.

Curt came and picked us up and drove us home. The kids ran out to meet us and Ellie wrapped herself around me in a bear hug. So happy to have us home. When we came in the door, Sadie's face lit up to see the huge banner Grampsie had made with her brothers and sisters "Welcome Home Sadie!!" And then we melted into the mundane. Games of crib, music, books, quading, feeding the goats, snuggling on the couch, and I snuck around stealing each one of the kids off to a little corner of the house for a "one on one." Darren wanted hugs and he wanted me to read his latest writing for school and help him with some music. Robin wanted to talk about what a great teacher gramps was. Ellie wanted to tell me how independent gramps was letting her be while working on her math. Wes wanted to cuddle and have books read to him. Eva wanted to nurse. My oldest daughter Carrie melted into tears on my bed. "Mom, she's all bent over when she walks... she's so little and in pain. I didn't think it would be this bad." We talked like friends... like equals... sharing pain. I thought of my newly "re-found" friend Lisa and explained the old quote to Carrie that says "Let it be that a joy shared is a joy multiplied and a sorrow shared is a sorrow divided." Thankful for family and friends who have chosen to divide this sorrow amongst them and bear this burden with us. Thankful for Lisa who lets us divide her sorrows... Thankful for sorrows divided on a Tuesday.

The "Kids"

I was preparing pork chops and rice tonight for dinner and Sadie walked past me with a little white bowl filled to the brim with raw rice grains. "I'm going to hide these ALL over the house and then we can go find them!!" (*big happy grin*)

At the dinner table today Darren was teasing Wesley. Wes was trying to tease him back by yelling "Don't Robin!" "Don't Carrie!!" Darren looked at the rest of us. "See? That just proves that I am Everyone and Everything to him!"
...perspective. :)

The reasons why

Eva cried at 2am.
Because she cried, I nursed her.
Because I nursed her, I was thirsty.
Because I was thirsty, I went to the kitchen for a drink.
Because I went to the kitchen for a drink, I realized I was hungry.
Because I realized I was hungry, I remembered there was Haagen Dazs in the freezer.
Because I remembered there was Haagen Dazs in the freezer, I ate it.
Because I ate it (around 2 in the morning), I didn't have to share with my husband and 7 children.
Because I didn't have to share, I ate in complete silence.
Eva should cry at 2 am more often...

I wonder if this is how loud it is at the Jespersen's?

After dinner today, Carrie asked me to teach her how to play the piano. (*insert frantically excited hyperventilation here*) She had gone to a friends' house for a birthday party and found that she was able to play all of her fiddle tunes on a toy piano her friend had because all the keys were labeled with the notes. I pretty much ran to my filing cabinet and pulled out a copy of Leila Fletcher Book One and we started working through each page. I say "we" because i can't control myself when it comes to music.
Where there was a "duet" part for the "teacher" i played it.
Where there were lyrics i sang them.
Where the song called for a small drum, i grabbed a toy tin pot from the desk behind me and dinged it with a pencil.
Where it called for a trumpet, Carrie looked at me expectantly and laughed... and i did my best.
Oh yeah... and Carrie played her piano part. :)
By this time, of course we had drawn a crowd.
Darren: "Why would he stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni?"
Me: Because he's a nerd... next song! (I was not going to be distracted when things were going so well...we were on page 30!) and then...
Wesley: "POOOOOOP! POOP! POOP! POOP! MOOOOM! poop mom."
At my house that word trumps whatever else is going on... that and the word "barf".
I got up from the piano and suddenly i saw myself and my life from an outsiders' point of view. I was in my nightie at 6:30, wet hair in a towel at the piano, dinging a pot with a pencil and disrespecting Yankee doodle dandy in front of impressionable children. As i trotted Wesley to the washroom (who had taken off his diaper and used the "closet for a deposit" under the not so watchful eye of his father) we passed Sadie. She was riding her new training wheeled bike that she just got for her birthday into the music room.
"Mom! The purple paint shines!!"
Me: "Yeah! So pretty Sadie!"
The kitchen counter was covered with bean plants growing in large egg cartons for Ellie and Sadie's science lesson, and the giggling and piano plunking went on without me. Yes it's loud... and a little chaotic sometimes around here with seven kids...But I'll bet you have days like this too!